What Went Wrong With the Original ‘Game of Thrones’ Pilot?

We’re close enough now to Game of Thrones’ end that you might forget its troubled beginnings. Near of the entire original pilot had to be re-shot, for which series star Kit Harington now reveals that his bosses David Benioff and Dan Weiss “made a lot of mistakes.”

HBO has never publicly released the original Game of Thrones pilot, which featured different cast like Tamzin Merchant in the role of Daenerys Targaryen and Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark. The majority of the episode ended up re-shot over quality concerns, and Kit Harington spoke to The Guardian about some of the elements that weren’t working:

They made a lot of mistakes. It didn’t look right, didn’t feel right, had nothing different about it. They say, if I ever piss them off too much, they’ll release it on YouTube. Every now and then, they send me a screengrab, just as a threat.

Among the changes, it seems Harington had originally worn a wig for his role as Jon Snow, and shot the pilot completely clean-shaven. Other significant changes included a less loving relationship among the Starks overall, longer scenes of exposition and a different introduction of Daenerys.

It remains to be seen if HBO will ever release the original Game of Thrones pilot, but was the final product our best possible introduction to the world of Westeros? Stay tuned for more as Season 8 production continues into 2018.